After a week of national media exposure that brought condemnation, accusations and some old-fashioned name calling, Escondido attorney Dean Broyles half-jokingly said he feels like the most hated man in the country.

The “vicious and nasty” comments began after he filed a lawsuit against the Encinitas Union School District.

Broyles is president and chief counsel of the nonprofit National Center for Law & Policy, which focuses on issues of religious freedom. He argues in the suit that the district is violating laws protecting the separation of church and state because its yoga program contains religious elements.

Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy, stands at his offices on Friday in Escondido, California. — Eduardo Contreras

Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy, stands at his offices on Friday in Escondido, California.
— Eduardo Contreras

The litigation may seem frivolous to some, especially in coastal North County, where Christians and people of other faiths commonly frequent yoga studios and see the practice as secular exercise. But Encinitas also is home to conservatives who over the years have objected to a perceived gay agenda and the teaching of “The Catcher in the Rye” in their schools.

The lawsuit, which Broyles said may be the first of its kind in the United States, also spotlights an ongoing debate about whether yoga is appropriate for Christians or, as at least one theologian has called it, “the work of the devil.”

Broyles contends that the yoga curriculum is based on a spiritual practice, and that district officials don’t offer viable alternatives for students who want to opt out. The district’s leaders counter that they have stripped away anything that could be interpreted as religious, down to the names of the yoga poses.

“A lot of criticism we get is, ‘What do you have against a little sweating and stretching?’” Broyles said. “The answer is, ‘Absolutely nothing.’ I’m not even against people doing yoga. I’m against the government teaching Ashtanga Yoga.”

The district is funding the program with a three-year, $533,000 grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation, which also is paying for a related study about the benefits of yoga among children.

The foundation was named in honor of Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who developed and popularized Ashtanga Yoga. Jois Foundation board member Tim Miller, director of the Ashtanga Yoga studio in Carlsbad, said the group worked with the school district to create a curriculum suitable for children.

“The overall intention is to provide kids with tools that will allow them to live healthier, happier and more productive lives,” he said.

Miller described Ashtanga as a dynamic version of yoga, characterized by the integration of breath and movement.

“Due to the active nature of the practice, it is considered to be very suitable for young people because it provides a good physical workout. But it also brings calmness and clarity to the mind,” he said.

The district’s curriculum refers to such benefits, stating that it helps students “connect more deeply with their inner selves and develop an understanding with the natural world that surrounds them.” It also said that “yoga brings the inner spirit of each child to the surface.”

Broyles said that wording proves the curriculum goes too far.

“Why in P.E. class are they concerned with connecting with inner selves?” he said. “It’s a spiritual statement.”